History of the Gun ?

[KClarke]

Can anyone direct me to an online source with a good compilation of the history and evolution of the gun?

  I'm starting a new position as a NIBIN technician in a few weeks, and trying to brush up on my gun history.  I'm having trouble finding a site with a good, comprehensive history of the gun.  Everything I'm finding so far hop-scotches around the timeline, focusing on what that particular writer thought was important.  From first recorded instances of 'fire-powder' in China, straight to arrow-launching cannons in England.  Kind of hard to pull it all together when it's so scattered, and just wondering if someone might have already done so somewhere online.

  I'd be indebted if someone can point me in the right direction, perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong places.

  Thanks in advance for any help you can offer,

Kenneth Clarke

[Scott Doyle]

Kenneth,

I've recently been buying books off of Amazon.com.  They have a lot of firearm related books and you can get used books for next to nothing.  I've paid as little as 3 bucks for some of them.

One of the books I bought was Ivan Hogg's, "The Story of the Gun".  My trainee really liked it and it is well illustrated.

There are a number of firearm history books listed.  Just do a search and then click on the "used books" link on the individual pages.

[Michael Neel]

Kenneth,

I recently purchased numerous firearms related texts from various websites. The prices have varied from $5 - $125 (Hatcher, Jury and Weller). Here are the three sites that I check regualrly:

www.half.com
www.abebooks.com
www.bookfinder.com

Mike

[Michelle Dilbeck]

Either the History Channel or The Learning Channel offers a program called The History of The Gun.  You can buy the video at most stores or online at Suncost.com or Amazon.com.  When I was a NIBIN tech this show was recommended by one of the examiners.